A Prelude to the Study of Indigenous, Pre-European, Church Architecture of Kerala

DOI: 10.15415/cs.2014.12008 A Prelude to the Study of Indigenous, Pre-European, Church Architecture of Kerala Sunil Edward Abstract Christianity is believed to have been first introduced to Kerala in 52 CE through St. Thomas, the Apostle. This paper introduces the traditional indigenous Church architecture of Kerala that existed before the arrival of Portuguese in 1498 CE. The paper mainly looks into the circumstances under which it got destroyed and also analyses the reasons for its disappearance. The paper concludes that after the arrival of the Europeans and, in their initiative to bring the Kerala church closer to the Western church, they constituted a conscious attempt to alter the religious architecture of traditional Kerala Christians, declaring that it was Hindu by nature. Their intervention caused an irreparable break in the age-old system, and introduced a totally new and alien style to the traditional church building character, form and scale, forcing the traditional church architecture of centuries to be wiped off forever. Keywords: Indigenous; Church Architecture; Kerala; Portuguese; Information Sources INTRODUCTION Calicut, 1498 AD: Vasco da Gama entered the entrance gateway of the Church complex and proceeded to the Church building. He was happy to go to the Church after the long and uncertain ship journey. Uncertain, as an explorer, going to a new land always had an uncertainty in it, but he loved it. It’s the satisfaction one gets in reaching the destination, a new land, that counts. He liked this new land too, which his men called the ‘Serra’, Portuguese word for the mountain. Further, he was amazed to know there was already a Christian community living there, existing for centuries. The people were simple, half-naked, he would say. As he proceeded further into the church, deliberately ignoring the perplexed looks of the local people, which he was used to in every new land. He correctly assumed that some were angry, which he chose to ignore. Though he was happy to see Christians in the new land, he was already annoyed to see Creative Space and hear about their curious customs, their dressing habits and their church buildings, Vol. 1, No. 2 all of which had been already reported to him. He entered the Church building and January 2014 prayed. Suddenly he saw one of his own men come running towards him, and was pp. 167–177 informed, “Sir, this is a Hindu temple, not a Christian Church”. Whether this account is based on an actual incident, or is merely a fable, its narration is very popular in Kerala. If the incident indeed did take place, it ©2014 by Chitkara University. All Rights also poses a curious question, “Why did it happen?” Gama was a well traveled Reserved. man; he had seen a lot of churches. When one travels, for the first time, to a 167 Edward, S. new country, one wouldn’t barge into any religious building thinking that it could be a Christian church, even when one knows that there were Christians in the new land. There is little or no possibility for mistaking a Hindu temple for a Christian church -- unless, of course, one has a preconceived and a fixed notion regarding the form and appearance of church buildings of the new land. To understand possible reasons for the confusion, one has to travel back in time to the Fifteenth Century Kerala, and, try to look at the then existing church buildings of the region. But then, are there any church buildings of 15th century which have been conserved today without any physical change, that is, without any architectural facelifts, extensions or modifications? The answer, unfortunately, is in the negative. The question then is, whether there exist any other sources through which one can obtain authentic and accurate information about the content and form of the Fifteenth Century churches in Kerala? In the absence of physical evidence, the quest began for written records of the era. Thanks to the many European pilgrims, travelers and writers of the Fifteenth, Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, the original state of indigenous churches has been recorded in several documents. Scholarly and meticulous perusal of these historical records gives clues, if not definitive answers, for identifying possible reasons behind Gama’s mistaking a Keralite Christian Church for a Hindu Temple. THE INDIGENOUS CHURCH ARCHITECTURE OF KERALA In general, all writers seem unanimous in their observation that the churches of the pre-Portugese Kerala resemble the “pagodas of the Hindu”, the term ‘pagoda’ being used to described the traditional multi-tiered, pitched roofs of Kerala’s temples. For example, Monserratte S.J., a Spanish priest who visited Kerala in 1579 CE, was to record that “Their (Christians of Kerala) Churches, of which there are still many, were built in the same manner as the houses of the idols of these parts; the present Archbishop sees to it that they are built in our style” (Athapilly, 2000, p.152). This statement attests three facts: one, that the churches that existed in 1579 CE were not built in the manner that was familiar to the Europeans; two, that these churches were built in the same style, or appeared similar to the “houses of the idols”, or the Hindu temples that then existed in Kerala; and, three, the attempt by the Europeans to change the architectural character and style of the then existing churches to what was familiar to them. This also gives an indication of the reason for the complete absence of such buildings today. 168 The most prominent among the writers to have described Kerala’s churches A Prelude To of the pre-Portuguese periods was Antonio de Gouvea, who accompanied The Study Of Archbishop Dom Menezes, the Archbishop of Goa on his Kerala visit in Indigenous, 1599 CE. His monumental work ‘Jornada do Arcebispo Dom Feri Alexis’, Pre-European, was originally written in 1599 CE in the Portuguese language and was first Church translated to English in 2003. Here again, Gouvea uses the term ‘pagoda of Architecture Of Keralas the Hindus’ to describe the appearnace of an indigenous Kerala church and explicitly writes that, “all the old ones (churches of Kerala) were built in the style of the temples of the gentiles” (Athapilly, p. 29). The buildings were “small” (Athapilly, p. 359), “so narrow and low, that scarcely was it possible to raise the Most Holy Sacrament at the altar” (Athapilly, p. 340) and “very dark” (Athapilly, p. 437) inside as there were no windows. He also mentions that the Kerala Christians had “made around (the church) … a very high wall” , which could be crossed only “with ladders” (Athapilly, p. 137-138) because of its height. This observation is also supported by many such compound walls that are still extant in many old Christian Churches and Hindu Temples of Kerala. He further adds that some churches, like the St. George Church, Aruvithura (Erattupetta) was “built of bamboo, like the temples of the gentiles” (Athapilly, p. 441-442), describing the architectural style that then existed. (Fig. 1) Figure 1: Bamboo and Timber construction in the existing Thiruvithamcode Church. (Image Source: Sunil Edward) 169 Edward, S. In fact, the view that before the arrival of the Portuguese, the indigenous churches looked more like Hindu temples is a well known fact amongst most celebrated historians of Kerala1. In one of the publications by Kerala History Association, Nedumkunnam (1968) states, “to the viewer, the only difference between a temple and a Christian church (before the Portuguese period) could be only the cross in front. The form, shape and elements of a church were the same as that of a temple. This setup changed only after the arrival of the Portuguese”(Nedumkunnam, 1968, p. 161). As a matter of fact, the official view of the Kerala Church Curia is also same. ‘The Verapoly Archdiocesan Centenary Souvenir (1886-1986)’, an official publication of the Catholic Archdiocese of Ernakulam states: “In middle ages the church construction took many things from temple style … this existed before the arrival of the Portuguese and till the end of 16th century” (Ochathuruthe, 1986, p.150). The Christian Encyclopedia (1972) also describes the Kerala church building before Portuguese period thus: “The worshipping places of the Christians looked like that of non-Christians except the crosses kept on the roof and in the front of the building”(Kraishava Vignana Kosham, 1972, p.72). Dr. Xavier Koodapuzha, a scholar in Kerala church history, has this to say about pre-Portuguese Kerala churches, “Churches looked like Hindu temples from outside … The processions of the church also looked like that of Hindu temple. It was only from the Cross carried in front that it could be made out”. Another prominent architectural feature that distinguished the indigenous Kerala church from its European counterparts was the Mukha-mandapam (entrance porch) in the front (Fig. 2). Gouveia (1606) cites that on many occasions, that the Archbishop Menesis rested in the “porch of the church” (Gouveia and Malekandathil, 2003, p. 205, 208, 209), while Maria (1672) writes, “…on going to the church they (Christians) leave their guns or spears in the porch outside” (Maria, 1672, p. 151). Iyer (1926) quotes yet another seventeenth century European traveler who says, “...when they entered the church they deposited all their arms in the porch which then presented the appearance of a guard house”. Further, contemporaneous descriptions of the existence of Mukha-mandapam are also supported by many such structures that are still in existence (Fig. 3). The souvenirs published by many churches, in connection with their annual festival, usually contain a history of the church, and have also been referred to by the author.

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